Blog – Somerset Hills Lutheran Churchhttp://shlc.net
Tue, 13 Feb 2018 19:39:10 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.4Able to Answer (blog)http://shlc.net/able-answer-blog/
http://shlc.net/able-answer-blog/#respondFri, 26 Jan 2018 01:40:52 +0000http://shlc.net/?p=6856I went along for the ride on our mission trip to Plainfield, to give out hats and gloves on the street. It’s one of my favorite things to do in December, and this year I made sure to stand close by the tables, to watch the crowd of thankful people receive our gifts. One man,

]]>I went along for the ride on our mission trip to Plainfield, to give out hats and gloves on the street. It’s one of my favorite things to do in December, and this year I made sure to stand close by the tables, to watch the crowd of thankful people receive our gifts.

One man, who had also been taking in the scene, walked over to me and asked, “Why are you doing this?”

He had a look of disbelief on his face. I think I must have had the exact same look on mine.

I hadn’t anticipated questions, and of that sort no less! And so, unprepared, I gave him the administrative answer: “Well, a member of our church, who worked here as a police officer, told us about the need…”

When did I get so spiritually…dull?

Twenty-some years ago, a coworker asked me a related question: “Why are you smiling all of the time?” It was as if she was annoyed with me – I mean, what right did I have? The responsibilities of family and work were weighing heavily on her.

I didn’t hesitate, but shared my faith in Jesus with her eagerly and freely, telling her about how He was changing my life and about His great saving love, and His nearness in His Word. Back then I brought my Bible to work, and I just opened it up and invited her in.

It was so easy…back then. What’s changed? Why do the questions seem so hard now?

In my early 20’s, I was full of energy and compassion, and relatively free of responsibility. Since then I’ve been expending my resources in marriage and parenting, keeping house, helping people in need, and working in various ministries at church.

I guess at times all of that tires me out and, well, weighs me down.

Jesus said, “My Father is always at his work…and I, too, am working” (John 5:17). He also said, “…my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:30). There is some key insight in these seemingly conflicting statements, and if I just had more time to look into them…

“Come to me,” Jesus said, “all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:29). He meant it as an invitation, but I don’t think it’s optional.

Sin and suffering aren’t the only things that weigh us down. The administration of our Christian duties can become a burden too, when we forget the point of it all.

Why am I doing it all? So that I can answer that very question! For the opportunity to answer.

Only Jesus can help me see that clearly again. He frees me. He lifts me up above all that I do, and at the same time re-engages me in it.

The questions aren’t hard. What’s hard is setting everything aside long enough to come to the only One who makes us able to answer them.

]]>http://shlc.net/able-answer-blog/feed/0When John Saw Jesus (blog)http://shlc.net/john-saw-jesus-blog/
http://shlc.net/john-saw-jesus-blog/#respondFri, 05 Jan 2018 21:02:08 +0000http://shlc.net/?p=6852There’s a great scene in my favorite movie about Jesus, where He comes to the Jordan River to be baptized by John. The music starts to build slowly, John is in the water and Jesus approaches, then John looks up and sees Jesus and kind of freezes in his place, and the look in John’s

]]>There’s a great scene in my favorite movie about Jesus, where He comes to the Jordan River to be baptized by John. The music starts to build slowly, John is in the water and Jesus approaches, then John looks up and sees Jesus and kind of freezes in his place, and the look in John’s eyes when he realizes who this is…

What an epiphany!

Jesus and John tell us so much about each other in the Gospels.

John heralded Jesus in the desert, and years before that our Lord heralded John. He told Zechariah (through an angel) that he and Elizabeth would have a son who would be “great in the sight of the Lord” (Luke 1:14). And do you remember how (in Luke 1:44) baby John heard Mary’s voice and “leaped for joy” in Elizabeth’s womb? The Savior was so near, about to be born into the world.

Had God really chosen to flesh out our salvation – like this?

Yes!

And He fleshed out Isaiah’s 700 year old prophesy in John the Baptist, the “voice of one calling: ‘In the desert prepare the way for the Lord…'” (40:3). John pointed people back to the prophets of old, who (through God’s Spirit) had pointed them ahead to John, to this very time, the coming of the promised Messiah.

“Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is the one I meant when I said, ‘A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed to Israel…I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him…I have seen and I testify that this is the Son of God” (John 1:29-34).

Later, Jesus spoke to the people about that testimony: “John was a lamp that burned and gave light” (John 5:35).

Testifying to the truth cost John dearly. He left home and family to live in a cold, lonely desert, eating locusts and wearing camel-hair clothes. He even lost his life for Jesus.

In some ways, Jesus and John seem to mirror each other, don’t they? But John’s words in Matthew 3:11 shed light on that: “I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire”.

Jesus left His divine place alongside the Father in eternity to come into the world and become one of us, suffering in the flesh as we do. He suffered for us and for all people, for our sins, and He willingly gave up His life for us so that we might be forgiven by God and saved through Him.

“…the one who is from the earth belongs to the earth, and speaks as one from the earth. The one who comes from heaven is above all…” (John 3:31)

]]>http://shlc.net/john-saw-jesus-blog/feed/0On the Road (blog)http://shlc.net/on-the-road-blog/
http://shlc.net/on-the-road-blog/#respondSat, 09 Dec 2017 19:04:28 +0000http://shlc.net/?p=6843“The Advent of our God, Shall be our theme for prayer; Come, let us meet him on the road, And place for him prepare.” (“The Advent of Our God, LW #12, vs.1) We sang this Advent hymn at our Lessons and Carols service, and I’ve been thinking about it ever since, especially the part about

]]>“The Advent of our God, Shall be our theme for prayer; Come, let us meet him on the road, And place for him prepare.” (“The Advent of Our God, LW #12, vs.1)

We sang this Advent hymn at our Lessons and Carols service, and I’ve been thinking about it ever since, especially the part about meeting Jesus on the road. What does that mean? Isn’t Advent about waiting for Him?

Waiting reminds me of a party I had, and how the guests were late – really late. I wasn’t waiting very patiently that night, or very compassionately as the food went from cooked to overcooked.

What if I invited my neighbors over for dinner, then walked down the road to their house early in anticipation of their coming, knocked on their door and told them how eager I was to welcome them into my home?

They might think it unusual. But they would also know that they meant a lot to me.

Roads make me think of two of my favorite Bible stories.

In the parable of the lost (or prodigal) son (Luke 15:11-32), the father spotted his son while he was still a distance away, walking back home, disgraced and truly sorry. I don’t know if the son was walking on a road, or just through the grass, but I like to imagine that he was. How long and hard that road must have seemed, as he wondered what kind of reception he would get! But what did his father do? He ran out with compassion to meet him.

In the other parable, the Good Samaritan stopped along the road to help someone in need, after others had passed by on the other side. Did you ever wonder where the Samaritan was going? My guess is that he was on his way to something really important and he didn’t have a moment to spare, so that the choice to stop and help the injured man lying there was a really hard one. (Isn’t that how it always is?) The Samaritan stopped, bandaged the man, helped him to an inn and cared for him there for a day. The next day he paid the innkeeper to care for the injured man until he was well, and promised to come back to pay any additional expenses. Highly unusual, wouldn’t you say? To do that much for someone he didn’t even know?

“Go and do likewise,” Jesus said. (Luke 10:37) Note the word “Go”!

Forgiving someone, as we ourselves have been forgiven, is like going out and meeting Jesus on the road. So is helping someone in need (especially when you don’t have the time). These are active ways of waiting for our Lord and Savior, which we can do in Advent and any other time of the year.

The Lord used a handful of Christians, showing some unusual kindness to me at different times in my teen and young adult years, to lead me to His Church. They met me on the road. They were like a pattern of Someone greater, who I would recognize in amazement later because of what He had done for me through them.

God has shown us all the most unusual and undeserved kindness! He sent His Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and the light of our lives, to give up everything – His own precious life – so that we could be forgiven of all our sins and be with Him for all eternity!

The larger community will be gathering on the main street in town again this Christmas Eve to sing around the tree. What will they think when we meet them there with hot chocolate and cider? They’re probably going to think it’s a bit different from the usual, but won’t they also know that we care?

]]>http://shlc.net/on-the-road-blog/feed/0Given (blog)http://shlc.net/given-blog/
http://shlc.net/given-blog/#respondWed, 22 Nov 2017 14:00:58 +0000http://shlc.net/?p=6796We give thanks. We are forgiven. For-given. Past tense. We give thanks to God for we have been forgiven of all our sins. When we come to God in repentance, we remember that we are utterly sinful and in desperate need of His forgiveness. He reminds us that His forgiveness has already been given. Not

When we come to God in repentance, we remember that we are utterly sinful and in desperate need of His forgiveness. He reminds us that His forgiveness has already been given.

Not just given, as we give gifts to each other, but paid for dearly through the pain and suffering, and torturous death of His only Son.

Jesus Christ suffered and died for our sins on the Cross.

It’s not a matter of bringing our latest breach of conduct before God and hoping that He will decide to forgive us – again.

We’ve already been forgiven.

“…take heart!” Jesus said to his disciples, on his last night with them. “I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)

Jesus assured his disciples of this, not after but before he went to the Cross. It was before he agonized in the garden and before he asked God to remove his cup of suffering, if possible.

He assured them of His Victory over sin and death before his last breath in agony, before he said, “It is finished.” (John 19:30)

In the same way we are forgiven, though we are still humbled, and deeply troubled at times, by our sinfulness.

When we give thanks to God for all that He has given us – His forgiveness and salvation in Jesus Christ – we rejoice! We rejoice in His great love, which we cannot begin to fathom. We rejoice in the peace that this great love gives us. We rejoice, and we give thanks, for the kind of love that has done all of this, for us.

]]>http://shlc.net/given-blog/feed/0Change (blog)http://shlc.net/change-blog/
http://shlc.net/change-blog/#respondThu, 05 Oct 2017 13:00:01 +0000http://shlc.net/?p=6648Kindness never goes out of style. People have always appreciated patience and perseverance too. How we express these virtues changes over time though. I admire my teenage daughter’s calm composure when her text message takes more than a split second to send. I’ve been thinking all about change, and in particular the need for change

]]>Kindness never goes out of style. People have always appreciated patience and perseverance too. How we express these virtues changes over time though. I admire my teenage daughter’s calm composure when her text message takes more than a split second to send.

I’ve been thinking all about change, and in particular the need for change in the church, since Pastor John asked us (in the SHLC October newsletter) to consider these things. What changes do we need to make at SHLC in how we share the love of Jesus with people today? I’m glad that Pastor suggested we also think about the things we share together that are unchangeable.

After all we don’t make change just for its own sake. We have a reason to change. We make strategic changes. Change happens eventually whether we make it or not, and in the midst of change it’s important to identify all that we retain.

Membership comes to mind.

The church has always been and always will be the body of Christ (Ephesians 1:22-3). Paul compared it to the members of an actual body – foot and ear and eye – in his first letter to the Corinthians (chapter 12). He talked about differentiation, and at the same time about unity. I think it was C.S. Lewis who also described the church as a group of people who are extremely different and yet harmoniously united.

And what else would we expect, really, from a people of “all nations” (Genesis 22:18) who are now “children of God” (1 John 3:1), “neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female…” (Galatians 3:28)?

The bodies that occupy our worship space here at SHLC on Sunday have changed over the years. People have come and gone, and some have passed on.

We dress differently now. I like knowing I can come to church in my jeans today and no one minds, though I think the pretty dresses and hats women wore to church years ago are classic. I’m glad the young women today have found their own style, and we are all just trying to connect with fashion in some way, still I do prefer that vintage look to the modern ‘Bohemian’.

May I not covet (too much) those things that belong to the past.

We have some babies in the pews now at SHLC, and I wonder sometimes how they will grow and what they will add to our harmonious differences (and what they will be wearing 20 years from now). New ideas, new inspirations and innovations – it’s all so exciting to think about. It’s also amazing to think that we continue to be united with everyone who has ever gone before us in Christ.

There is an indelible link between us all, even as we move forward and change.

It is a bit paradoxical to think that we exist as one perpetually changing body in Christ for the set purpose of preserving and passing on a message that will never change:

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

How we present that message changes over time, of course. We don’t use hymnals in worship anymore, but rather a computer projector and screen. Music and prayers change, except for a few special exceptions. I often look up Bible verses on my phone now for convenience, though I still use my printed Bible for morning devotions (because I so love turning the actual pages). And I can’t talk about my faith with people in the larger community the way I used to years ago, when everyone knew basic things about Christianity. I need to be more creative now, with God’s help!

I like that our pastors are preaching the same message this month that Luther preached 500 years ago: Christ, grace, faith, and God’s Word – alone – and Glory to God alone! But I am also glad to hear them apply it to me and my world today. I’m thankful, and I praise God for the time and energy they put into keeping the message true, and also relevant.

Museum staffers need to find ways to preserve ancient artifacts, and to present them in new ways to changing audiences. But as Christians, we work to connect people to God’s living and dynamic Word which reveals things hidden in the past, leads us boldly into the future and at the same time is here and now, all around us and at work in us and through us.

The Word changes us.

Sometimes I’ve found it’s a matter of trying not to get in the way of change! My daughter went off to college last month and, though I fought it in my heart and tried to deny the inevitable all summer, in the end I just needed to step aside and let her go on to her new life.

The church’s job has not and will not change: “go and make disciples…,” Jesus said (Matthew 28:19). Our job is to figure out how we make them, how we welcome new members into the body of Christ, in this day and age. As we work together now to determine how we need to change, we can take comfort in knowing that the One we worship – who guides, empowers and sustains us – Himself is the same “yesterday, today and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8)

]]>http://shlc.net/change-blog/feed/0This is our God (blog)http://shlc.net/this-is-our-god-blog/
http://shlc.net/this-is-our-god-blog/#respondThu, 14 Sep 2017 13:00:23 +0000http://shlc.net/?p=6582After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, I wrote a Bible verse on an index card and carried it around with me everywhere. Whenever I felt overcome by fear or grief, I read the verse on the card to remind me that God is in control, and that He loves and cares for me. Although I hadn’t

]]>After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, I wrote a Bible verse on an index card and carried it around with me everywhere. Whenever I felt overcome by fear or grief, I read the verse on the card to remind me that God is in control, and that He loves and cares for me.

Although I hadn’t done it as a witness to anyone, a friend of mine saw the card and was moved by the fact that I was turning to God’s Word at a time like that. Her own faith in Jesus was strengthened, and she still reminds me of that card and what it meant to her.

Like everyone else right now, I’m feeling unsettled about world events and I’m saddened by the loss suffered from the hurricanes in Texas and Florida. I’ve written another Bible verse down on a slip of paper and I’m keeping it in my pocket:

“O Lord, you are my God; I will exalt you and praise your name, for in perfect faithfulness you have done marvelous things, things planned long ago.” (Isaiah 25:1)

God’s Word is that part of His presence with us that we can hold on to. When life gets so hard, or painful or overwhelming that we struggle to keep going, we can cry out to the Lord Jesus Christ and He comes to strengthen us in His Word.

It’s not so much about a feeling, although often reading The Word does fill the heart with encouragement and hope. But sometimes we feel nothing, and The Word seems empty to us. In these times we can be sure to trust that it is at work in us all the same, if we will only hold onto it.

The coldest hours of night come just before dawn.

In spiritually weak or dry times, I’ve found the best thing to do is to bring my doubt, and all of the other feelings (or lack of them) that go along with it, to Jesus. He already knows, after all. Another thing I do is thank and praise Him, especially at those times when it doesn’t feel sincere, because I’ve found this to be the best way to reconnect with Him. The Lord Himself calls me to these things, and gives me the spiritual strength to do them.

We are the ones who need, and He is the one who comes – and who came – to meet it.

Praising God is telling Him that He alone is good enough to hold onto, strong enough to support you, and wise enough to lead you. Thanking God is remembering that He has been faithful to you all along.

God’s Word lifts us up out of everything that would make us fear and doubt, and reminds us that He has already done marvelous things for us by giving us His beloved Son, Jesus Christ, to die for our sin. Jesus died, and rose again to life! He forgives our sin and gives us the promise of eternal life with Him. He has given us His Spirit to be with us and strengthen us.

“…Surely this is our God; we trusted in him, and he saved us. This is the Lord, we trusted in him; let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation.” (Isaiah 25:9)

]]>http://shlc.net/this-is-our-god-blog/feed/0In The Whisper (blog)http://shlc.net/in-the-whisper-blog/
http://shlc.net/in-the-whisper-blog/#respondThu, 29 Jun 2017 13:00:09 +0000http://shlc.net/?p=6443(1 Kings 16:29 – 19:18) “What are you doing here, Elijah?” (19:13) The word of the Lord came to Elijah in a cave atop Mount Horeb, calling the prophet out into His presence. There was “a great and powerful wind” that “tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks”, an earthquake, and a fire (19:11).

The word of the Lord came to Elijah in a cave atop Mount Horeb, calling the prophet out into His presence. There was “a great and powerful wind” that “tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks”, an earthquake, and a fire (19:11). The Bible tells us that God was not in these awesome displays of nature’s force, but that He came to Elijah in the gentle whisper that followed them.

The prophet, standing at the mouth of the cave with his cloak over his face, replied, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty…” (19:14)

Elijah had done everything that God commanded. He bore the bad news of a coming drought, God’s judgement upon His people for their idolatry, to Israel’s unfaithful king Ahab. Then he waited, first in a ravine, fed by ravens, then in the heart of idol worship, Zarapheth of Sidon, fed by a starving widow.

Elijah trusted God, and the woman’s “jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry” (17:16).

“After a long time,” finally, God commanded Elijah to act, and he did (18:1). They would face off, The Lord vs. Baal, Elijah against the 450 false prophets of Baal.

“Answer me, O Lord, answer me,” Elijah prayed, “so these people will know that you, O Lord, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again.” (18:37)

In short order “the fire of the Lord fell” on Mount Carmel, God’s people fell prostrate before Him, and the prophets of Baal fell by the sword in the Kishon Valley (18:38). Elijah prayed and it rained, the drought was ended! In God’s power he ran ahead of Ahab’s chariot.

God’s dramatic demonstration of His sovereign power should have turned the tide. But amazingly, Queen Jezebel was not impressed. She threatened the prophet and Elijah fled in fear.

“I have had enough, Lord… take my life”, he prayed, under the broom tree (19:4).

Elijah had been zealous for The Lord, had done everything God commanded, and he must have expected to see results – rock splitting, earth quaking, fire burning results in the hearts of men.

But God made his presence known to Elijah in the whisper, beyond the desert, alone on the mountain. And from there he instructed the prophet in what he would need to do next.

Reading Elijah’s story reminds me of what we, as Christians, must do.

Continue to trust in God’s larger plan (how much more we have seen of it than Elijah!). Do what The Lord has commanded us to do, and go where He sends us. Wait. Hold on when the earth shakes. Know that His voice will come – it always comes – a quiet whisper, comforting and strengthening us, and sending us out yet again.

]]>http://shlc.net/in-the-whisper-blog/feed/0From Darkness to Light (blog)http://shlc.net/from-darkness-to-light-blog/
http://shlc.net/from-darkness-to-light-blog/#respondThu, 18 May 2017 13:00:29 +0000http://shlc.net/?p=6344“In the beginning,” we learn, “…the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep…And God said, ‘Let there be light,’…God called the light ‘day’, and the darkness he called ‘night’. And there was evening, and there was morning – the first day.” (Genesis 1:1-5) It’s interesting to note that day

]]>“In the beginning,” we learn, “…the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep…And God said, ‘Let there be light,’…God called the light ‘day’, and the darkness he called ‘night’. And there was evening, and there was morning – the first day.” (Genesis 1:1-5)

It’s interesting to note that day runs from evening to morning in Genesis. For us, the day begins when we crawl out of bed at sunrise and ends that wonderful moment when we collapse back into bed after the sun’s set. But for the ancient Israelites the new day began at sunset.

“One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them…” (Luke 6:12-13)

The day that Jesus chose the men, “whom he also designated apostles”, (6:13) started ‘bright and early’ in the night, with prayer. Later, in the morning, Jesus went out to appoint the men who would help build the church.

This sequence from night to day connects in my mind with that larger theme of darkness to light, which we see so often playing out in our favorite books and movies, and which we wish would play out more in the ‘real’ world. It shouldn’t feel strange to us, this order of things from darkness to light, because it is fundamental to The Bible, and to our Christian faith, as is the hope both expressed and fulfilled in God’s Word.

“The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.” (Isaiah 9:2)

While we were still lost in the darkness of sin, Jesus came with power to save us. (Romans 5:8) He came to give us the light of life. (John 8:12)

The New Testament Gospels record the much-anticipated fulfillment of God’s promised deliverance and salvation, articulated so stunningly in Old Testament history and prophecy, and so beautifully in its poetic language of longing:

“My soul waits for the Lord, more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning.” (Psalm 130:6)

Gospel writer Matthew tells us that on the Friday we now call “Good”, when Jesus died in our place on the Cross, “darkness came over all the land.” (27:45) From noon until 3 in the afternoon, it was as night. Then, “at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look in the tomb” (28:1), and found a bright and shining angel, and then found Jesus – not dead but alive! (28:2-10)

It resonates with us, this order of dark to light, because it is intrinsic to our own lives as Christians, as God first delivers us personally, through faith in Jesus Christ, from the darkness of sin and death to the light of forgiveness and life, and then daily delivers us from our doubts, fears, and all manner of trials. It is evidenced in our hope, which by that same faith in Jesus clings to the truth of His glorious Resurrection, to the reality of the Kingdom of God on earth, to the making of disciples and the growing of the church, and to the promises of Jesus’ return and of our own new and eternal life in Him.

]]>http://shlc.net/from-darkness-to-light-blog/feed/0Seen in the Crowd (blog)http://shlc.net/seen-in-the-crowd-blog/
http://shlc.net/seen-in-the-crowd-blog/#commentsThu, 13 Apr 2017 13:00:38 +0000http://shlc.net/?p=6247Jesus’ journey, from His temptation in the desert to His death on the Cross, began and ended alone. Surprising, when you consider how He ministered to so many people in between. Luke tells us in his Gospel that at one time, a “crowd of many thousands had gathered, so that they were trampling on one another,”

]]>Jesus’ journey, from His temptation in the desert to His death on the Cross, began and ended alone. Surprising, when you consider how He ministered to so many people in between.

Luke tells us in his Gospel that at one time, a “crowd of many thousands had gathered, so that they were trampling on one another,” to get to Jesus, and yet He “began to speak first to his disciples, saying: ‘Be on your guard…'”. (12:1)

Jesus came for all people, but He knew and related to them each personally.

“Someone touched me,” He said another time, as “the crowds almost crushed him.” I imagine everyone stared in stunned silence as Jesus stopped to reassure the woman, who had reached out desperately for His cloak, saying “Daughter, your faith has healed you.” (8:40-48)

Jesus knew all about people, knew them individually and intimately, and He cared for them that way. Would we really expect anything less from a God who took on our flesh and washed people’s feet? But it surprises us again and again, and leaves us speechless.

And sometimes we forget it.

At Jesus’ Last Supper with His disciples, after all that He had taught them and even as He was serving them His body and blood in the bread and the wine, the men dissolved into an argument about which of them was considered to be the greatest. (22:24)

“You are those who have stood by me in my trials,” He reminded them. “And I confer on you a kingdom…”. (22:28) They may have lost sight of Jesus, but His vision of them never wavered.

Jesus, suffering servant Savior that He was, saw it all coming: how the same crowds that shouted “Hosanna!” would soon shout “Crucify!”, and how his disciples would sleep through His time of greatest need and then flee from the scene of His arrest, and how Simon Peter would deny even knowing Him – three times – after professing his undying devotion just hours before.

Our Risen Lord sees all of the ways that you and I will lose sight of Him too, in the crush of life, and this comforts us in Lent as we gaze intently upon His body, broken for our sin, on the Cross.

Jesus prayed for Peter on their last night together (22:32). And the Gospel of John records how He prayed for the disciples (17:6-19) – and for us! – that night too (17:20-26). Jesus saw it all coming, how they (and we) would go on to build The Church, the Kingdom of God on earth. And He has promised to walk faithfully with us in it all, forgiving and healing us, guiding and strengthening us, by the power of His Spirit, along the way.

“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations…,” He said, before He ascended into heaven. “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20)

]]>http://shlc.net/seen-in-the-crowd-blog/feed/1Washed Clean (blog)http://shlc.net/washed-clean-blog/
http://shlc.net/washed-clean-blog/#respondThu, 02 Mar 2017 16:00:16 +0000http://shlc.net/?p=5989My favorite part of serving with our SHLC altar guild is setting up the sacred vessels on the altar right before worship. Pastor’s daughter, Sophia, often helps me, and one of the last things we do together is place 3 small, white purificator cloths at the base of the chalice. I like to think about how

]]>My favorite part of serving with our SHLC altar guild is setting up the sacred vessels on the altar right before worship. Pastor’s daughter, Sophia, often helps me, and one of the last things we do together is place 3 small, white purificator cloths at the base of the chalice. I like to think about how these special vessels and cloths have been set apart for use in Holy Communion.

Cleaning up after the service feels a bit more like a chore, I must admit, especially if the cloths are really stained. Sometimes I just soak them in water, with a drop of dish soap, to get the wine stains out. But lipstick stains, wiped from the chalice between servings, require more patient attention and closer inspection. Shadowy traces sometimes remain, no matter how I work at the stain. At some point I have to decide I’ve done enough, and that the cloth is either sufficiently clean for use again the next Sunday or that it needs to be replaced.

Because I’m one of those people who thinks (too) deeply about everything, I sometimes ruminate about the stain of sin while I’m scrubbing gently away at the cloths. What is the nature of sin? Why do I struggle with it? What should I do about it?

We don’t just stain ourselves when we sin. All of us, at times, hurt others also. I can spend too much time and energy trying to ignore or erase the traces that remain of the sins I have hurt others with, and of the sins they have hurt me with, or I can come to my Savior Jesus Christ and find forgiveness and healing. When I look at the Communion cloth, I remember that it’s not the stain of our sins but the blood of our Savior on there now. We are forgiven, washed clean! That’s the Easter message.

Lent is a special, set apart time when we look intently at how that came to be. We walk with Jesus to Jerusalem and see how He took our sin and suffering upon Himself. Before we celebrate how Jesus rose again to give us eternal life, we first remember how He died in our place on the cross.

We remember how He loved us.

Repentance is a big part of Lent. I remember how Jesus suffered and died for my own sin, and I bring that very personal remembrance to the foot of the cross. Repentance is a hard discipline, but one which brings such relief as I confess the truth of my sin to God and discover, right there, the truth of His unconditional love and forgiveness for me personally. This greater truth washes over me, like the waters of Baptism. Because of what Jesus has done for me, no sin can cling to me!